Category: Saving Money

First things first, happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there! I hope to be a mom one day too but this year I am not. Mothers do so much for their children, keep them alive, let them grow, watch out for them, nurture their dreams, and are our biggest fans throughout our entire life. My mother has done so much for me and still is. She gave up a lot for my sister and I, and pushed through many challenges to give us the best life possible.

Of course, ever since I’ve been married I also now have a mother-in-law! She’s the one who brought up my hubs to be the way he is and taught him so much. This morning we went to her house to make her a sushi lunch to celebrate today. My mother lives across the country so I couldn’t do as much but made sure to give her a phone call. Also sent some spa items but they didn’t arrive in time.

The biggest common thing between my mom and mother-in-law? They’re both super super frugal, yet generous when it’s meaningful. They save everything to the point where I wonder if they are borderline hoarders (or hoarders), but it’s these habits that have allowed them to save money to reach their goals. Goals that included giving their children the best life possible. Both of them are retired and have started taking more vacations! Road trips across the country, cruises, and sometimes vacations out of the country on fun tours.

As for me, it’s sometimes hard to be frugal yet take the time to enjoy life. I constantly have to remind myself that it’s not about hoarding money, it’s about hoarding it for goals I want to achieve. All the same, I wouldn’t want to only enjoy life only when I’m retired. I would like to enjoy it now also. With some family medical issues that have happened in the last year, this has become even more important to me.

The fun part is that the older generation (my parents) are more of a frugal mindset where even on vacations they can just eat peanut and butter sandwiches day in and day out. I’m not saying they enjoy it, but they worked so hard all their lives to save money that it’s just second nature to them! As they get older though their views are changing and instead of telling me to save money, they’re starting to tell me to not worry about it so much and enjoy life. They’re the ones who taught me to be frugal and gave me a good base for starting! Now as they let loose in their retirement they’re telling me different things.

So now the question is, how do I balance saving for the future with living life now? I’m not going to spend all my money on whatever I want, guess I’ll have to save smartly and use that money when I think it’s worth it:P

What’s your frugal life philosophy?

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It’s the first year that I actually have Memorial Day off since I work for a smaller business. My husband got Friday off too though so I decided to take my floating personal day (cause no one has to work on their birthday) early and have a 4 day weekend too! What better way to celebrate than to check out some national parks?

Admittedly I haven’t really visited a lot of national parks. From LA I am within a day’s drive of quite a few of them actually. Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, and Zion are just a few examples. This weekend wasn’t the best time to go as it was busy everywhere, but what’s a working woman to do? I don’t have a lot of 3 day weekends! It’s also not the best time to try to be budget friendly as we didn’t plan this vacation far enough in advance and it wouldn’t matter because everything is pricier. I still tried my best though!

The Plan
I had 4 days to go wherever I want. Of course I want to maximize my time but relax at the same time. We headed out Friday morning to Yosemite first since it’s farther away. Then on Saturday afternoon we headed down to Sequoia. Monday we headed home in the afternoon after one leisurely late breakfast. We did our due diligence by researching things we want to do, and also buying any tickets we needed before we go. Yosemite was absolutely insane and Sequoia was pretty busy too. We lucked out on finding parking spots before they closed off the lots but it was still tough getting through all the people. Apparently there was one distraught woman who was hitting the shuttle bus at Yosemite because the bus driver wouldn’t let her get on the crowded bus.

Food Stuffs
Grand Canyon was such a beautiful place to visit, but the food was pretty horrible. It’s pretty much the same thing for all of these places. It was crowded, touristy, overpriced food all around. Instead of stocking up at an overpriced last stop shop at the parks, we did some grocery shopping and hauled it there. This saved us when we didn’t have time to go find food at Sequoia when we were trying to make a cave tour reservation. It wasn’t real food, but it was something to fill our tummies until we could get somewhere else.

Places to Sleep
This could’ve been the biggest money saver. We could’ve camped at Yosemite for $12 a night. Well, we stayed in hotels. Definitely more than I would like to spend but it’s worth it for me! After running around all day I definitely appreciated my comforts even more. A good night of rest was essential to keep my energy up through the busy weekend. For three nights of hotel stay we’re at about $450 because of the holiday weekend. It’s pretty cold in Yosemite and Sequoia at lows of 30 degrees though so there’s no way I would even consider camping. The hotel at Yosemite is much pricier though so we decided to only stay one night there at least. At both parks we ended up staying about an hour outside of the parks to save a bit of mula too. It was insanely expensive closer to the park! That meant we had to drive quite a bit to get to where we wanted to go though.

Year Pass for all National Parks
It’s $30 per park for a pass that’s valid for 7 days. For 2 parks that’s $60 already. Luckily my husband went on an all guys road trip to Zion a week ago and had the foresight to spring for the $80 year pass! It’s unlimited to any national park whereas the week pass is only to that specific park. His friends chipped in $20 so the price of this pass is already at $60 for us. Of course to take full advantage of this we’re going to try to use it at other parks too.

Overall this was a decently pricey trip because of the hotel accommodations. It was pretty insane at Yosemite and it kinda felt like home with crazy drivers there! You’d think on a national holiday like Memorial weekend that people would be nicer, but alas no. I still had a great time though and we made the best of it. Today we were debating on going back to Sequoia in the morning but with the crazy winding roads and how tired we are of crazy people, we just took our time to get home. It’s good to be home for sure!

What did you do for this Memorial Weekend?

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Sweatshop-free, American-made, earth-friendly, and inexpensive clothing? Is there such a thing? As I try more and more to make my money mean more with what I buy this seems to be the next step. Turns out it’s pretty hard finding clothing that fits all of parameters above! I’ve researched a ton of companies to see if I could find clothing that fits all that and I’ve had to scale back my expectations. Now if I can find clothing that fits at least one of those first three then I’m good to go.

Okay, so first of all why am I even doing this? I’ve never been one to care much about fashion so my clothes are pretty basic and some of them are pretty old. I don’t spend a ton of money on clothes and while I don’t wear them until they fall off, I do patch them up as needed to make them last longer. It’s a pretty big industry though and where we spend our money has an impact on how that clothing is produced.

Sweat-shop free
Many clothing companies use sweatshops in order to crank out cheap clothing. Workers are paid very little and often are women and children working in horrible environments. Sweatshops are in the news all the time with fires breaking out in a factory and killing everyone because fire exits were blocked. Or unsafe work conditions that caused a building to collapse killing everyone inside. I definitely don’t want to be wearing clothing that someone risked their life to make and were paid next to nothing for. By supporting companies that are sweatshop free it helps those companies trying to do the right thing. Treat people well and pay them a fair wage for their hard work.

American-made
So far this has been the hardest thing to find! American Apparel is definitely the first place that comes to mind when thinking American made but their clothing isn’t the best quality and can be pricey. Unfortunately it’s much less expensive to manufacture goods out of the country. It would be nice to support American companies to boost our economy! Overall American-made goods are also higher quality that could justify the higher price point too.

Organic Cotton
Tons and tons of chemicals are used for cotton farming which obviously isn’t so good for the earth. It pollutes land and water and affects the health of the farm workers. If I’m going to go organic with the food I eat, then why not with the clothes I wear? Organic cotton goods are harder to find, and pricier usually, but if I at least buy a few items every now and then hopefully it makes an impact!

Some companies doing the right thing
If you’re looking for fashion then it’s pretty hard to find if you also want it to be all of the above. Most companies that fit those only manufacture basics actually. So far I’ve been frequenting a few places that have pretty good clothing for the price point and quality.

H&M
I know this is a big company but they’ve come out with many organic cotton clothing items that are pretty affordable. Not my first choice but they’re trying at least!

I don’t always buy consciously every single time I shop. In fact I just bought a few items that definitely weren’t, but were too cute to pass up. It’s good to use my money in a more meaningful way for sure!

Are you into buying more conscious clothing?

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With all this talk about saving money I think a lot of us now have conditioned reflexes to really veer toward lower dollar signs! I know when I’m shopping I do tend to do that now and I have to take a step back and tell myself to think objectively and not just grab the cheapest item. This happens with a variety of things and a lot of times I end up buying something that’s higher quality even if it’s not the lowest price. I want things I own to last longer and not break within a few months. Still, my eyes have a tendency to light up when I hear something that sounds like a good deal, but in reality isn’t.

With family incoming in a couple of months my husband and I have started planning a little bit in terms of what supplies we have/don’t have and also anything we need to consider. It’ll be 7 people total including us and the last time this happened we decided to rent a mini-van to save time and hassle. A couple hundred dollars we didn’t love spending but it worked out well since then we didn’t need two cars driving at all times. Also not a fun thing in LA!

It was time to look into renting another mini-van for the week family would be here. Yep…the dreaded mini-van.

“I’ve always wanted to drive a mini-van!” Said no one ever. It’s clunky, not stylish, bulky, and the only reason you would ever get it is if you needed something to haul around a lot of people. The style of a mini-van hasn’t changed in decades with good reason. No one’s dream car would ever be a mini-van. Yet, we really could use one for just one week. Driving two cars for hour long trips really isn’t fun and there’s the question of whether or not our cars could even fit everyone plus kid car seats. The gas used on both cars too would probably amount to the same as one mini-van. Not to mention that it would be much more stressful to drive two cars than one.

A quick check and mini-vans currently are running about $30 a day. And…..full-size vans are at $22 a day! Whoa that’s like dirt-cheap considering how much more you get! Isn’t America all about getting more for your money? For $8 less a day I could get two times more metal and capacity! What a deal!

But wait…is it?

Nope, not at all.

If no one ever wants to drive a mini-van then who the heck would want to drive a full-size van????

The parking spots in LA are the size of compact spots elsewhere in the country. Parking would be a nightmare anywhere we went and we’d have crying kids and grumpy people in the car.

The street lanes in LA are pretty thin and even in my Corolla I wish I had more space…what if we ended up side-swiping another car?

I can’t imagine how much gas a full-size van would consume.

I don’t want to park this thing in front of my house.

I don’t even want a full-size van at all! It’s just like buying something at the store that you weren’t looking for but was on sale that you couldn’t pass up, then realize that it wasn’t a deal at all because you don’t even want it. In this case I realized before I have a full-size van lounging outside my house. Other times, might not have been so lucky with impulse purchases.

What’s something you bought for a good deal then realized it wasn’t at all?

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It’s official!!!! This week will be Thanksgiving and officially the craziness of the holidays start! The stores have been prepared for Thanksgiving and Christmas for weeks already. Cue the Christmas music that will play endlessly and forever stuck in my head through the beginning of next year. And of course there will be all the crazy sales and people trying to get the newest products. Another holiday season, another few month of trying to stay sane and remember the real meaning behind the holidays.

Each year that passes by it seems like the holidays get crazier and crazier. The stores begin crazy sales in October it feels like and there’s a lot of potential stress with trying to find the perfect gifts and hold the perfect holiday celebration. It’s always a good thing to remind myself about why the holidays are here and what they are really about.

Keeping it real
This is the one thing I need to tell myself over and over during this time of year. It’s too easy to go overboard and get really stressed out when really it’s time to celebrate with family and friends. It’s so easy to lose track of that in this materialistic time, but doing so will keep me grounded and hopefully as stress-free as possible. Oh and more mula in my wallet I hope.

Gifting
I have a pretty long gift list and honestly it can be pretty stressful and money can fly out the window quickly if I’m not careful enough. I actually started shopping a long time ago to give myself a ton more time to buy people gifts that are actually useful and hopefully things they do want (and on sale or on clearance too!). One thing I started last year that I’m continuing now is to give charitable donations instead of physical gifts. Or a small gift paired with a charitable donation. It’s the thought that counts right? I have a lot of fun buying gifts though so I don’t want to stop entirely. Giving myself plenty of time though ensures I do it smartly, with less stress, and can budget my mula correctly.

Everything does not have to be perfect
Being a perfectionist is the one thing I’ve been fighting a lot. In the end if it’s not perfect it doesn’t mean I’ve failed. It just is. I don’t need to have a live Christmas tree that’s 6 feet tall to decorate the house. Some stuff across the fireplace is just fine too. Every gift I buy doesn’t have to be amazing either. Only for my sister. Hehe.

Avoiding the crazy shopping days
Admittedly…I am one who loves to go Black Friday shopping. I don’t wait in line on Thanksgiving night or anything, or go to the big box stores. I would go to the outlet malls and shop all day. The bargain hunter in me loved the great deals I could get on kitchenware and clothing. This year I’m going to avoid doing that at all! I really have everything I want and my gift list is already pretty complete. I’ll just relax this year and avoid the temptation of another set of Pyrex. The one thing I might do is small business Saturday just to support the local businesses. That should be a lot more chill than Black Friday!

It’s the holidays!!!!!!! I’m going to spend time with family and friends and just enjoy the moment as much as I can.

What’s your game plan this holiday season to enjoy it and not spend all your mula?